The volume of calls and mail regarding the column I wrote last week on my breakup with TiVo was extraordinary. What an outpouring of empathy and advice! Fellow geeks kindly shared tips on programming my new Comcast DVR, particularly the 30-second skip feature. Fellow former TiVo devotees empathized. Several offered to buy my old TiVo box (they fetch upward of $200 on eBay, which I’ll donate to the Post’s Season to Share campaign).

Others steered me to a Web forum,

dvrchatter.com/, for sufferers of post-TiVo trauma.

Comcast spokeswoman Cindy Parsons noted “Comcast and TiVo are working together to develop a version of the TiVo service.” They expect it to be available soon on Comcast’s DVR platform as an extra (i.e. at an additional cost), and more widely available next year.

Cautioned Bob Alder: “Your trauma may not be over just yet. While I may be the exception, I relied almost totally on Wishlist and Keywords for 90%+ of my requested recordings. After cutting the cord with TiVo and only then realizing that the Comcast DVR software didn’t do this, I was stunned! Also, the Comcast DVR box was, and is, glitch-ridden. Five years of trouble-free TiVo hardware was replaced by four Comcast boxes in the first year. Arrrrrgh!!!”

Some noted the more common TiVo-branded Series 2 boxes work with many types of Comcast digital set-top boxes. “I’ve been using a Series 2 TiVo box successfully with both interfaces for nearly four years without any setup issues,” said Barry Draeger.

Tim Neverett must have a Series 2. He said “the Comcast installer told me that TiVo would not work with the cable box he was about to install. I was panicked, but let him install it anyway. Once the (configuration) process was complete, my TiVo works with the digital cable box exactly the same way it did when it was hooked up to DirecTV. The Comcast installer gave me wrong information, as it turns out, and I am happy once again with my TiVo.”

Observed Neal Ulevich: “The problem seems less one of technology – after all, one can’t expect backward compatibility forever – than customer service, and the ability to predict and project customer wants and needs. TiVo is brilliant, especially the user interface, but customer service is sometimes wanting.”

Barb Sawyer wished me “better luck with Comcast than we have … The Comcast DVR is slow in response, so you stop way past or way too far forward. Sigh. Then there are the times when it just stops. Then there are the times when, if you push the Watch DVR button twice, it sets the zoom mode on your screen which means pix doesn’t fit screen. I could go on and on. Clunky, poor interface and just rotten software.”

Likewise, Laura Beuther commented that, “since my upgrade to digital HD and their DVR in August, I have had nothing but trouble with the DVR and Comcast’s technical service.”

She documented her woes in a lengthy letter to Comcast, citing “constant picture problems, endless hours of phone calls, service calls, and Internet research, with no solution yet in sight.”

And Robert Barron finds the Comcast DVR “is not as good a product as my friend’s TiVo. The Tivo picture is always crisp and smooth, whereas the Comcast DVR often ‘freezes up’ during playback. During extreme ‘freeze ups,’ the cable box will not stop, fast forward, rewind, or turn off. I have to resort to the hard restart (unplug). Those are bad, but it is the ‘blips’ in playback of recorded shows (as well as live TV) that’s annoying on a daily basis.”

Phil Chilcote got a new TiVo Series 3 High Definition DVR for $799 but found it wouldn’t work with his Dish Network satellite service. “I sent it back for a full refund. Too bad, they are working themselves into a corner.”

Michael Kilgore admonished me for giving up too easily: “It sounds to me as though Comcast strong-armed you into dumping your paid-in-advance TiVo. I’ve got a lifetime TiVo too, and I use its IR (infrared) blasters to drive a Dish Network receiver. If Comcast or anyone else tried to give me a receiver that the TiVo couldn’t drive, I’d send it back.”